Ubisoft's been coy about what platforms its next open-world game will be coming out for, even if they've already said when. That it's coming to PC is a given, I think.

But this Watch Dogs screen that's been floating around today definitely looks like something destined for the next round of console hardware. But will Orbis or Durango be able to render this amount of detail? We'll see.

The meltdown and collapse of 38 Studios not only halted the development of a potentially promising game in progress, but also hurt plenty of people.

In a recent interview with Boston-area sports radio network WEEI, studio founder Curt Schilling—formerly a major league baseball pitching star—explained how the studio collapse hit him, personally.

In addition to the now infamous $75 million loan that 38 Studios received from the state of Rhode Island, Schilling invested approximately $50 million of his own income and savings into the company, he told WEEI. Money which is now all gone. Schilling related the story of explaining the bankruptcy of 38 Studios to his family:

[T]he money that I had earned and saved during baseball was probably all gone. And that it was my fault. And that they might start hearing some things in school and things like that. And let's be clear: We're not talking about a terminal illness or somebody during. But it's a life-changing thing. It's not a conversation I would wish on any father, or on anybody. But I had to do it, and explain to them that part of growing up is being accountable. This was my decision to do this, and I failed. And life would probably start to change and be very different for us.

Schilling himself never drew salary from 38 Studios, and while he admitted that salaries for other employees may have been slightly excessive, he said it was the only way to draw top talent.

And why did 38 Studios fail? A lack of financial investment. But not, apparently, a lack of emotional one. "Listen, we absolutely made mistakes," Schilling said. "But everything I've ever done in my life has been from my heart."

Curt Schilling on D&C: ‘I'm not asking for sympathy' after losing $50M in business collapse [WEEI, via ESPN]

A couple of days ago, after reading Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo's Pay to Win article, I expressed my disappointment to him and to Kotaku on their choice to advertise and promote cheat sites. Totilo felt that talking about the details about the cheat sites were meant to be as sourcing for the article, not advertising, while I felt that he might as well have linked directly to torrent sites for games.

Is cheating as destructive to multiplayer games as torrents are? I certainly think so, especially for free-to-play multiplayer games.

For a free-to-play game like the game my company makes, Super Monday Night Combat, cracked versions or torrents don't affect our sales. Our game is free. There's nothing to gain by redistributing a DRM-free client, because all the security and verification happens on our servers that we control. The downside of an easily-accessible free to-play-games is that it's primed for third-party hacks like the ones mentioned in Totilo's article. I feel the hacks are more destructive to our game and players than any torrent could ever be, because it ruins the experience for every other player in a particular match.

There was a line in the article: "The man from Canada doesn't seem like such a bad person. He just pays to cheat at video games." It expressed the idea that it's just cheating, that it's not a big deal and is part of the gaming culture. Sure, pay-to-win cheats have been around since the early days of games, from the adventure-game hint lines, strategy guides, and cheat cartridges. The difference is that cheating in a single player game can be fun and interesting for the player doing it. In a multiplayer game, it's a completely different story, because it's a shared experience with other players.

Super MNC is a team-based, 5v5 competitive multiplayer game with a focus on team play. With so much focus on team makeup, the game can get pretty intense. All it takes is a single player using cheats to ruin the emotional experience for nine other players. If those nine players feel like they've been cheated against, they're unlikely to keep playing or invest more time or money into Super MNC. Since there's no upfront cost, our hope is that if players play the game, enjoy it, they will invest some time and possibly purchase characters or items they find interesting.

A compelling experience is a must for the success of a free-to-play game. We spend a significant amount of time fixing exploits, creating tools to detect cheaters and letting players report possible cheats. We record every action a player performs in a game, including weapon-firing, movement speeds, and chat history that is saved to a data-replay-file during a match. There's also in-game reporting functionality that players can use to document a player suspected of hacking. Most of the common hacks like aimbotting, movement speed hacking, adjustments to weapons, and camera hacks are auto-detected and reported to our servers. We also use a community-run ban-list that keeps track of known cheaters. With a combination of automated features, game replays and player patterns, we're able to determine if a player is cheating.

The real interesting thing with cheaters in Super MNC is that they're not typically at the top of the leaderboards. Aimbotting in Monday Night Combat was much worse with the Sniper class due to the headshot kills. We learned from that experience and, with Super MNC's lower lethality and focus on teamwork, being able to auto-lock on heads isn't as useful to winning matches. Another thing we've tried is to take Sharpshooters off our our weekly free-class rotation. Aimbotters are content with paying for a third-party cheat but less willing to spend money in Super MNC to unlock a Sharpshooter class knowing that their account will be banned.

Even though the amount of cheating in Super MNC is low, we're starting to see some more creative hacks start to emerge as we ban the more common techniques. It's an ongoing arms race that will never end and we have to be vigilant with our constant updates. The suspicion that someone is cheating is enough for players to feel like they're not getting a good experience. It's our job to make sure that cheats stay out of our game and the playerbase know that we're active with our cheat prevention.

Is there a better solution to cheaters in multiplayer games? For the majority of the player base, this is a non-issue. The deterrent is game content. The more invested a player is into the game, the less likely they would want to get caught cheating and be banned, losing all the accumulated experience and unlocked items in the process.

Could we as developers deliver a compelling experience where players don't feel the need to pay a cheat site to get their entertainment? Possibly. Only time will tell.

What in the unholy creation of Sims 3 character edits is this?! Be careful when using downloded designs on your toddlers, folks.

ಠ-ಠ It was a boy. [Reddit]

Centipede: Origins, for iOS and Android devices takes you back to the mystical garden menaced by the hundred-footed bug, the spider, the flea and the scorpion, but your protagonist looks regrettably like the Travelocity gnome, not the dashing elf from the 5200 packshot. You can relive the fight of the arcade classic in one of four venues, give yourself a boost with some cute-but-not-essential powerups, and grind away for experience points that unlock more weapons and more efficient means of pest control.

The game still plays like Centipede with a few variations. Your gnome, of course, fires automatically. Mushrooms are destroyed with two shots instead of four, making it easier to clear the playing field. The scorpion is smaller and his entrance is less dramatic, making it harder to tell where the poisoned mushrooms are. These will send a centipede headed to the bottom on a slower diagonal path instead of barreling straight down. The flea also doesn't accelerate after getting hit with the first shot, making him more of a pest than a real threat.

Centipede: Origins' later levels are unlocked with the coins you earn for progressing (or collecting as foes drop them) but this is a minor, minor requirement. I was able to see all four levels after about five minutes of play. The power-ups are interesting but not really critical to success, given how, in straight gameplay, this Centipede is much easier than its ancestor. Its difficulty lies in the one-hit/one-life consequence the game lays down. There's a bit of an annoying wait as the game cycles you over to a retry window.

Aesthetically, the colorful fantasylands and cartoon typefaces are mixed with a whimsical musical score that I didn't really care for. The presentation will barely remind you of the original game, with its pulsating drumbeat of insect footsteps and laser-show colors over a black background. If that's what you want to play, you won't find it here.

I played Centipede: Origins on an iPhone and ended my session thinking this is more of an iPad game. You move your gnome easily enough, with a finger directly underneath his position. But the screen is so small as to make some of the details of the playing field difficult to see or understand. And when the centipede reaches the bottom and begins to crawl back up, your finger will be obscuring his path as you evade him, the spider, and anything else on the field.

Despite these quibbles, Centipede: Origins fulfills the core expectations of its namesake, tones down the in-game difficulty while balancing it with a hard, single consequence, and at a dollar delivers plenty enough replay value to be a solid timekiller.

Centipede: Origins [iTunes, 99 cents]

Centipede: Origins [Google Play, 99 cents]

This is Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. It's a role-playing game made by some of the people who made 3D Dot Game Heroes and some of the people who made Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light. Nintendo showed it off during its Japanese livestream last night. And it looks wonderful.

Let's try to ignore the fact that it's called Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. This is the type of RPG that North American 3DS owners could really, really use right now. Just stick "Final Fantasy" somewhere in the title and bam: instant hit.

Welcome to Kotaku's official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren't even out yet? Knock yourselves out!

Sure, we had a Portal-themed TAYpic already this month but maestro Evilpigskin is new here and we want to make him feel welcome. Besides, I quite like the way that the super-clean Aperture Science test chamber aesthetic meshes with vibrant, natural essence of the figures from Botticelli's "Spring" painting. Plus, it's funny.

Uh, guys? Don't mean to bother you but we're running critically low on TAYpics. The needle is in the red. Think you can help?

Here's what you do. Post your masterpieces in the #TAYpics thread. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of Talk Amongst Yourselves glory. Grab the base image here. Don't forget to keep your image in a 16x9 ratio if you want a slice of TAY glory. The best ones will be featured in future installments of Talk Amongst Yourselves.

Sora travels to Traverse Town and meets Neku from the The World Ends with You in the playable demo for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, available today in the 3DS eShop.

There's this constant argument lately among gamers, over who really plays, what counts as a game, and where all the business is, anyway.

The folks at Mashable have shared an infographic that sums up the answers, and they are not out of line with what you might expect. There are more people playing mobile and casual games, but there's far more money coming from the AAA blockbusters.

With trends going the way they are, it's not surprising that developers like Crytek and publishers like EA are looking closely at free-to-play games and moving towards mobile gaming.

But still: what the infographic most clearly shows us is that it takes all sorts. Mobile and casual are on the rise, but we don't need to worry about our big-budget console and PC titles going away any time soon.

Video Games: An Industry in Flux [INFOGRAPHIC] [Mashable]

Nintendo is releasing an extra-large version of its 3DS in August, so it's time to start stretching out those pockets. How does the 3DS XL size up to other portable gaming machines? Let's answer that question with a handy-dandy size comparison chart.

I spent the better part of my early morning rendering a bunch of portable play machines down to size, painstakingly ensuring that the dimensions seen in the image below are as close as possibly to the actual size of the devices. Well, comparably, at least. Otherwise we'd all need much smaller hands.

Let's take a look.

What, that's too small for you? See? Size does matter. Click here to blow that baby up to full size.

Nintendo Has Unveiled a New Model of the 3DS. Here's Everything You Need to Know.

Overnight, Nintendo made the surprise move to unveil an all-new model of the Nintendo 3DS, called the 3DS XL. Boasting a redesigned case and a grealty-increased screen size, it goes on sale in America in August.
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